VIENNA, March 19. /TASS/. The Kiev authorities categorically deny any dialogue on political settlement with Donbas, Russian Permanent Representative at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said on Thursday after a meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council that focused on the situation in Ukraine.

"No lasting truce and sustainable ceasefire are possible without political settlement, and no such settlement is possible without dialogue," he told TASS. "Kiev is categorically reluctant to speak with Donbas about political settlement." He noted that Kiev’s dodging dialogue with Donbas was scaling up risks of further attempts to solve the conflict by military means.

"Last year’s developments seem to be recurring," the Russian diplomat said. "We saw it a year ago and it ended up, as we know, in Ukraine’s aggression against Donbas. Kiev is seeking to fall into the same trap, arrogantly ignoring representatives of the Donetsk and Luhansk republics."

When asked whether such Kiev’s behavior could mean its reluctance to solve the conflict peacefully, Kelin said there were such risks. "If they do not observe what has been agreed in Minsk after months of warfare, and Minsk agreements provide for a dialogue between the parties to the conflict to establish the DPR and LPR (Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics) status, local elections in Donbas and normal political settlement, the risk (of attempts to solve the conflict by military means) considerably increases," he said.